Union fires back at move to outsource planning work

Looks like city officials and neighborhood activists aren’t the only ones peeved about the idea we wrote about today that would allow the Planning Department to speed up some development projects by replacing their own environmental review experts with private contractors.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle

Michael Yarne, the mayor’s development adviser.

The union that represents the department’s environmental review experts sent Planning Director John Rahaim a four-page letter Friday spelling out their concerns with both the draft request for bids and the idea in general. They bring up some of the issues we touched on — the potential for conflicts of interest and potential reduction in staff — but also detail specific problems with what is being proposed. Among their concerns: that the bidding request is “open-ended and undefined” and doesn’t identify what the current problems, if any, are; that the move could actually prolong the process because the city would still have to sign off the consultants’ reports; that the department has already addressed any backlogs through hiring and training; that the three-year “pilot” is too long and there’s no set way to determine whether it is working; and that it could lead to questionable billing procedures.

The letter also sheds light on who is apparently driving the move: Michael Yarne, Mayor Gavin Newsom’s development adviser, is named several times as the person who will meet with staff members at an upcoming meeting to discuss the proposal, and as the person who’s been in contact with the union to explain its necessity (the letter says that his “primary observation has to do with the expediency by which these reviews have turned around,” and argues the plan wouldn’t address those problems anyway).